My friend Marc Lougee, producer of Ray Harryhausen Presents The Pit and the Pendulum, attended the Starfest Convention in Denver not long ago, and one of the people he introduced me to is Brad Rusk. Brad helps with the programming for the Horrorfest Convention part of Starfest, and he recently made some time to talk about his contribution to the convention and the convention itself.

TheoFantastique: Brad, I appreciate your willingness to discuss your work with the Horrorfest Convention within the Starfest Convention. Let’s begin on a personal note. How did you come to be interested in horror, and how did this eventually lead to your work through Starfest?

Brad Rusk: I became interested in horror when I was younger. My mom and I would watch Kolchaks Night Stalker and Rod Serling’s Night Gallery on TV and scary movies like the original Friday the 13th, and The Changeling with George C. Scott – as a result I had nightmares about that ghost rolling wheelchair as a kid. I used to have a lot of nightmares so I used to read at look at Fangoria magazine and finding out that the blood and gore was special effects it eliminated the nightmares and I became more interested in horror films.

My first Starfest convention was in 1987 and I didn’t go back until 2002. I did interviews with some of the Starfest guests for my local radio station then established a relationship with KathE and Stephen Walker (who have organized the Starfest conventions for over 30 years) since 2002 and I wanted to help out in some way, make a contribution to help with the convention, so in 2006 I emailed Kathy Josey who is the coordinator of the Horrorfest part of Starfest and wanted to offer my services to help out. By living in Nebraska I couldn’t do much in Denver to help, so I offered to do research and contact horror celebrities and horror related movie companies and help acquire raffle items for the Horrorfest annual fundraiser, that benefits the Diana Price-Fish Cancer Foundation out of Denver, Colorado.

So I have continued to do that since then. And in the process of contacting potential donors, I would come across movie companies mostly independent companies and filmmakers who would have a new film coming out and I would inquire about getting a copy for the fundraiser and they would want us to screen their film and we would end up including it in our weekend programming. And as of last year, I ran across an article on a film called Zombie Farm on a horror website and I emailed the film company about it and the ante’ rose with BLB Movies wanting to come out with some of the actors and the producers and director from Los Angeles and World Premiering Zombie Farm (which has been released on DVD with some Horrorfest/Starfest footage on the Special Features on the disc). In fact when they committed to coming the film wasn’t even done yet. They did a lot of editing and slapped together a great rough cut of the film within a few weeks before the con so they could premiere it in Denver, which was a great honor that they chose Denver to do so.

Last year I went to the Crypticon horror convention in Minneapolis to research and see how other horror conventions are run and met some great independent film companies. So again I asked for screeners of their films to consider our programming and they all wanted to come out to Denver. I continued to send out requests for our fundraiser and ran across Marc Lougee’s Pit and the Pendulum short film on MySpace and we corresponded and next thing I know he came out. MySpace has been a great avenue to finding independent horror films and filmmakers.

TheoFantastique: Can you tell me about Starfest, how it came about and how long it has been in existence?

Brad Rusk: Starfest is one of the very few independently run Science Fiction Media conventions that is organized and run by KathE and Stephen Walker in Denver, Colorado. From what I understand they were went to other Sci Fi conventions and wanted to organize one in Denver, they formed a company called Starland and their first convention was in 1977 and started in a good year. They were a part of the initial Star Wars advertising campaign when George Lucas was advertising the film. Last years Starfest celebrated thirty years. They had one show a year then moved up to doing 2 conventions, Starfest in the Spring and Starcon in the Fall. They went back to one big convention in 2002 which is Starfest in the Spring. Last years Starfest celebrated thirty years.

TheoFantastique: You help put together the programming for the Horrorfest Convention within Starfest? How long has this been going on, and how did the Horror Convention begin to take on its own life within the broader Starfest Convention?

Brad Rusk: Horrorfest celebrated 10 years last year. It started with a video room, where horror movies and horror-based television shows were played. It was primarily a place for people to go to take a break from the sci fi to rest and catch some shows. Then over the years the interest in horror grew and it would progress from a video room the there were additions of panels, and then horror trivia, horror authors, the fundraiser, the annual Rocky Horror Picture Show. We kept adding more and more stuff and we kept taking up more rooms in the hotel and as of this year we took over one third of all of the convention rooms. Starfest gave us all of the convention rooms on the South side of the hotel. Starfest is not just Starfest anymore. Horrorfest is its own convention within a convention if you will. The growth has been tremendous. We are like a rash that is spreading. Spreading enough that there is a possibility in the future that we could break off and have a separate Horrorfest convention. We will see.

TheoFantastique: Can you share some highlights from last month’s Horrorfest 2008?

Brad Rusk: Some highlights were that for the exception of a couple mainstream movies in our programming all of the films we showed were independent horror films. And the response for all of this new horror has been overwhelming. We pretty much have our own independent horror film festival.

We hosted the World Premiere of Attitude for Destruction (which is now on DVD) with the cast and director in attendance. Our good friend Jed Rowen who is in the film was here last year with Zombie Farm. I kept in contact with him after last year and networking with him got us the Attitude screening. He, along with the rest of the crew wants to come back again next year.

All of the independent filmmakers including Marc Lougee are vowing to come back next year. The overall Starfest/Horrorfest experience for them has been astounding and I was told by them all that its been the best convention experience they have had, which is encouraging, because I think the word of mouth will spread and more filmmakers and companies will want to come to Denver, which could lead into bigger things for the convention. We never expec
ted how big this thing has become over the past 3 years. The Starfest/Horrorfest convention is one of the very few independently ran conventions in the United States that has had great success and we encourage people to give it a try next year. They can go to www.starland.com and the Starland MySpace page for more information on the Starfest and Horrorfest convention. They can access past convention information on the links and look on the message board to get information on next years convention which will take place April 17-19, 2009 when it becomes available. They can also email me at bradleyrusk@msn.com if they want more info or to contact me if they have a film they would like us to screen for next year.

TheoFantastique: Brad, thanks again for sharing about Starland and Horrorfest. I hope to make it out to the convention in the near future.

Brad Rusk: Thanks John for the opportunity and you can contact me anytime for a followup and I will fill you in when info for when next year happens. We start really planning about end of the year beginning of January.